Salini Impregilo S.p.A.

Salini Impregilo initiates work on line 16 of Grand Paris Express

PARIS, January 18, 2019 - Salini Impregilo has initiated work on Lot 2 of Line 16 of the Grand Paris Express that will serve communities in the northern and eastern parts of the metropolitan area.

'We are very proud to be able to work on a second project within the parametres of the Grand Paris Express, given the strategic role played by the transport system in the city, as well as the long-term vision that has led to the development of the largest initiative of sustainable mobility in Europe,' said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive Officer of Salini Impregilo at a ceremony in Sevran, one of the communes that will be served by the line. 'For us, this project represents a point of departure to continue to invest in the country and share the know-how that we have acquired in the metro sector from the construction of more than 400 kilometres of metro lines throughout the world, from New York to Saint Petersburg, and some challenging projects that we are pursuing today, from Cityringen in Copenhagen to the metros in Riyadh, Doha, Milan, Lima.'

The Lot 2 project, valued at €718.8 million, involves the excavation of 11.1 kilometres of tunnel and the construction of four stations at Aulnay, Sevran-Beaudottes, Sevran-Livry and Clichy Montfermeil, along with 11 ventilation shafts. It follows a contract also won in March with joint-venture partner Nouvelles Générations d'Entrepreneurs (NGE) to extend Line 14 to the Orly airport to the south of Paris.

The two projects mark the return of Salini Impregilo to France after more than 20 years. Between 1992 and 1998, it worked on the Paris rail lines Est-Ouest Liaison Express (EOLE) and METEOR (Metro Est-Ouest Rapide).

'We want to grow in France with local partners and become a local company ourselves. For us, France represents one of the key countries in our long-term strategy for Europe in the infrastructure sector. We foresee involving small- and medium-sized local companies in the project, creating employment for people who are actually unemployed. Salini Impregilo will assign 20% of the value of the contract to local subcontractors and employ disadvantaged workers for 5% of the total number of hours estimated to be needed to complete its section of the metro line,' he said.

Growing in France is part of the long-term strategy plan that will see the Group always more foreign markets with a share of revenue in Italy less than 8% with a focus on large, complex infrastructure projects in sectors of sustainable mobility (metro), renewable energy (dams and hydroelectric plants) tunnels and waste water management.

The Group is focusing its activities in countries that have long-term investment programmes, apart from France and the United States, where it has a presence through its subsidiary Lane, some countries in the Middle East such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Australia, where it just finished the skytrain bridge as part of the Sydney Northwest, the biggest public transport project in Australia that will better connect the city centre with surrounding areas.